Good news for women working in private companies. From now on they will be allowed a maternity leave of 26 weeks says the union government. The span of maternity leave has been impressively increased from 12 to 26 weeks. Yes till now all private companies used to give their female employees a maternity leave of 12 weeks i.e 3 months all in all.
On 8th August, Maneka Gandhi, the Women and Child Development Minister said “The Ministry of Labour has agreed to increase maternity leave to six-and-a-half months. We had written to the Labour Ministry asking that the maternity leave be extended taking into account the six months of breastfeeding that is required post childbirth. The Labour Ministry has agreed to increase it to six-and-a-half months.”
This new implementation will be brought forth only after an official amendment is made in the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961. The Ministry of Labour will have to make sure the respective changes are done and previous law which entitled women to take 12 weeks of maternity break is altered. after this change is made, all private company employers have to provide 26 weeks of paid leaves to their female workforce in case of their pregnancy.
Although officials from the Women and Child Development have been telling the media that trials to extend maternity leave to full eight months are being put to work by them and this would include both private as well as public sector female employees. If this proposing trials and recommendations by WCD Ministry to the Cabinet Secretariat are acknowledged, then the Department of Personal & Training will have to give orders to improve it to eight months.
An official from Women and Child Development stated that, “The Labour Ministry has decided on six-and-a-half months following meetings with various stakeholders. We, however, feel that eight months of maternity leave — for women in government as well as private sectors — is required. We will move a note to the Cabinet Secretariat in this regard. Six months of exclusive breastfeeding is very important to combat malnutrition, diarrhea and other diseases in infants and to lower infant mortality rate.”
But there is one concern in the aforementioned matter that the officials from the Labour Ministry have come out expressing their inclination towards reservation related to an increase in the maternity leave as employability of women workforce will be drastically affected by this new amendment.
International Labour Organisation which functions for the welfare of all pregnant females in the world has a simple recommendation. It states that a minimum normal maternity leave of 14 weeks or more is mandatory for the employers to give though it encourages all its member states to amplify it to at least 18 weeks.
With its new allowance of 26 week long maternity leave, India will join the league of 42 countries which give at least 18 months of maternity break. But this is not enough because there are many other countries in East Europe, Central Asia and Scandinavia which have the most generous legislation for paid maternity leaves at national levels.
Not every one of you would know that women employees working for government are allowed to take childcare leave for max two years at any point till their child turns 18 and legally becomes an adult.
According to the latest recommendation of Seventh Pay Commission only the first 365 days of leave would be granted with full pay and the next 365 days would be availed with 80% of the salary. Even for this Maneka Gandhi has petitioned Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and took a negative stand regarding it. She termed the proposal, “as a regressive step at a time when women are trying to become more economically independent.”
Ranjana Kumari, director of the Centre for Social Research said “Women in India need longer maternity leave in absence of any support in parenting from men. It should not be seen as a deduction in labour hours but as a long-term investment from the future economic point of view. This is in addition to the fact that women need long maternity leave to recuperate and invest in child care. A recent analysis of the Maternity Benefit Act by CSR for the National Commission of Women showed that discrimination against pregnant women is widely prevalent in the corporate sector in the country.”
